04-12-2018, 06:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2018, 11:59 PM by Nathan Ross.)
(04-12-2018, 04:30 PM)Michael Kerr Wrote: I have a copy of Vegetius that although is translated by Lieutenant John Clark...
Count of Constantinople. Was this an honorary title or was he living in the eastern empire?
You really need to get the 1993 Milner translation - it's far better, and the notes are invaluable! It's not massively expensive either (not compared to, say, this...)
Milner's introduction mentions that the subscriptiones to the Epitome tell us that Vegetius was a vir inlustris (a very prestigious title) and a Comes primi ordinis - literally a 'companion of the first class', although Comes is usually translated (highly misleadingly, I think) as 'Count'.
This was, as Milner puts it, 'a rank reserved for the highest echelons of the imperial bureaucracy or the army chiefs of staff. Since Vegetius disclaims all personal military knowledge... we may take it for granted he was a bureaucrat' (p.xxxv)
He goes on to suggest various options, including the aforementioned comes sacri stabuli - I now see that his footnote mentions that Goffart (1977) 'assumes that V was comes sacri stabuli under Valentinian III, c.440, without argument.'
Nathan Ross
